Allie's War Season Three (10 page)

Before Jon could really wrap his head around what they were talking about, Jax was already shouldering on a gun holster and gun that had been sitting in a pile on a nearby barstool. He didn't glance at either Jon or Wreg as he began buttoning a heavy wool shirt over the holster and the worn T-shirt he wore underneath.

Jon glanced at Wreg when the seer began walking towards the door of the suite, his face now set in a determined glare.

"Where are you going?" Jon said, speaking to both of them, but mostly to Wreg.

Wreg gave him a disbelieving look. Then he paused long enough to face Jon, gesturing towards the television with one hand.

"Where do you think I'm going, little brother?" he retorted. "They just detonated an anti-terrorist device on the ground floor of that fucking Kraut bank...with the Sword and your sister inside. Now there's been another explosion. You and I both know there is no second team on the upper floors...so whatever they're after must be in that vault. If the two of them are alone, which you and I both know very well that they
are,
that means they just sat through at least one explosion, probably two. It also means they might have caused one of those explosions...which Nenz wouldn't do unless he was fucking desperate,
ilyo
..."

Jon paled as the seer's words sank in.

He found himself following them a second later, when Jax made his way towards the door with Wreg, buckling a second holster around his waist. Jax looked grim-faced now too, and paused only to shoulder on his jacket as Wreg did the same by the door.

"What are you going to do when you get there?" Jon said. "Do you even know? They have the whole place surrounded..."

When Wreg ignored him, Jon raised his voice.

"It's great you're so loyal and all," he added sarcastically. "But your pal, Nenz...he wouldn't thank you for getting shot for no reason. In fact, it would just piss him off..."

Wreg barely glanced at Jon, but his voice held a thread of humor that didn't touch his dark eyes. "Are you worried about me, brother?" he said. "Maybe I should tell Dorje about this concern of yours...he might not like it...?"

Jon bit his lip. "What?"

Wreg sighed a little, clicking. Then he turned, taking a few steps back into the room. When he got within a few feet of Jon he stopped, laying a muscular hand heavily on Jon's shoulder. The look in his eyes was closer to sympathetic that time.

"I am going, young brother," Wreg said seriously. "I would rather be near, on the chance that there is something we can do. Help them...if we can. If we cannot..." He made one of those vague gestures with his other hand. "...He would do the same. It is what we do for one another, yes? Isn't that why you came to tell me this? To help?"

Jon glanced at Jax, but the other seer already seemed to be in the Barrier. His eyes held a distant, faraway look, even before he fit the VR headset around his ear and clicked it on with a soft voice command.

Releasing Jon, Wreg rejoined Jax by the door. After exchanging some kind of silent communication with the younger seer, Wreg opened the door, motioning for Jax to leave in front of him. Once he'd passed through the doorway, still talking to someone on the other side of the headset, Wreg met Jon's gaze, his expression pointed.

"Well?" he said, when Jon didn't move.

"Well what?" Jon said.

"Are you coming with us? Or not?"

After a bare pause, Jon jerked forward. He found himself nodding, heading for the open doorway with a purpose.

"Yeah. I'm coming."

AS JON STOOD on West 24th Street, blocks from Fifth Avenue, he had time to wonder at Wreg's invitation...as well as the fact that recently the seer had taken to calling him 'brother,' instead of 'cousin,' as was the customary form of polite address from seer to human.

When the rebels first threw in their lot with the Adhipan and the Seven, Wreg treated Jon as little more than an annoyance. Jon got the impression Wreg saw him as an indulgence on Revik and Allie's part...but then, given his background with Salinse and the Dreng, Jon always assumed Wreg had very little patience for humans in general.

Still, he'd noticed the rebel leader's behavior changing towards him in the intervening months. He'd thought at first that the change was for Revik and Allie's benefit. Yet, unlike some of the ex-rebels, Wreg didn't change his behavior towards him depending on whether Revik or Allie were around. If anything, he was
more
polite to him when they weren't.

But Jon didn't have time to think about that for long, either.

Wreg insisted on Jon wearing armored pants, a vest and a jacket not dissimilar to the one Jon had seen on Revik in that image they'd captured of him in the stairwell. The clothes were fairly inconspicuous, at least at night in New York, and hid the two guns he also wore in shoulder holsters under the coat...but Jon couldn't help feeling as though he were wearing some sort of gangster costume anyway.

Wreg wasn't particularly inconspicuous, anyway...not even in New York.

Jon found himself watching the seer field stares as they walked down Fifth Avenue, and then across 24th Street and up Seventh Avenue after he decided Revik and Allie must be moving underground. Not all of those stares were hostile; in fact, a good number of them held an interest that was altogether
not
-hostile, especially in some of the clubbier neighborhoods they passed.

Wreg got enough looks, in fact, that Jon found himself looking at the seer himself, surreptitiously, of course, but in a way he'd never done before.

It had never occurred to him in his wildest dreams that Wreg would be man-bait, in terms of how he dressed, or his general demeanor, but clearly he was...in New York, anyway. He got looks from women, too, sure, but Jon caught a hell of a lot that were definitely from men, and not particularly subtle.

The observation would have been funny under other circumstances. Even now, Jon found himself thinking he would have to remember to tell Allie...assuming she wasn't off getting herself and her husband killed about now.

Wreg himself barely seemed to notice.

He led the other seers and Jon in a wide loop around the bank building to avoid attention from the cluster of media trucks, or from the military and local police converging on the area.

Mainly, however, Wreg said he wanted to avoid the contract seers that his team and the Adhipan could feel casing the place. Balidor had infiltrators shielding them from the hotel by then; the two teams were even coordinating reasonably well for a change, from what Jon could tell...but Wreg didn't seem to fully trust the Adhipan to have his back, either. Jon found himself glad it was Wreg on the ground actually looking for Revik and Allie though, given how pissed off Balidor sounded the one time Jon heard him through his headset.

Wreg seemed certain that Revik would have moved on by now, given what they could overhear on the feeds, and the law enforcement channels they'd managed to hack. Given the explosion in the lower-level vault, the prevailing theory by Wreg, as well as SCARB and the private security forces chasing them, was that Revik and Allie were using some portion of the sewers to make their escape.

Since most of the seer and human teams appeared to be heading underground as well, Wreg decided to shadow their forces, mainly to be available in case Revik and Allie needed help. For the same reason, they already had an evacuation contingency lined up, to get them out of the city in a hurry, if that ended up being necessary.

Jon was still kicking himself for not waking Dorje, but Wreg hadn't wanted to wait, and at the time, his reasoning made sense. Even so, Jon had a feeling Dorj wouldn't thank him for letting him sleep through this.

Sirens exploded down Eighth Avenue, even as Jon thought it, making him tense, right before he glanced over at Wreg, who hadn't left his side since they exited the hotel. The seer clicked out of the Barrier before Jon could even formulate the question.

"It's not them," he said. He gave Jon a level look. "Remember, the good news is if they beat us back to the hotel. We're just here in case something goes wrong..."

"According to Balidor, something already has gone wrong..." Jon muttered.

"Adhipan is a pussy," Wreg said, giving an irritated snort. "I'm sure he's right, that the Bridge is behind this...but Nenz wouldn't have gone along unless there was a good reason, no matter how horny he was. Adhipan acts like she leads brother Syrimne around by the cock...that he's got no functioning brain at all when she's around..."

Jon smiled wanly, but couldn't totally suppress his worry. "So you think they're okay?"

"I think if they weren't, a lot more of the city would be on fire."

Jon thought about this, then nodded, feeling his shoulders relax somewhat.

"How long do we stay out here, then?" he said.

He lowered his voice to a near mumble at the end, shoving his hands in his pockets as another group of clubber-types passed, this time staring at both of them. Jon saw a few women in that group, woven in with the men. More than half of them seemed to be staring at Wreg, which was beginning to make him wonder.

Maybe he had that pain thing going on...what Allie told him about. She said sometimes it acted like a great big sexual neon light, for seers and humans.

"Fuck you very much, brother Jon," Wreg said, giving him a sideways eye-roll.
"Gaos.
What the hell are we doing out here? Trolling for cock? Isn't Dorje giving you enough at home, that you have to be thinking about this shit in the middle of a military op?"

Jon felt his jaw harden, right before he stared at the Asian seer. Before he could think of an adequate response, Neela walked up, thumping Wreg on the back.

"...We just got word that they lost them," she said, smiling wider as she gave Jon a friendly nod. "They're running around down there like rats with no sense of smell..."

Jon found himself smiling back at her stiffly, still fighting irritation at Wreg. Still, he liked Neela. She was one of the ex-rebels he found completely down to earth and not-angry, even though she'd been with Revik during World War I, just like Wreg.

"Both groups?" Wreg said, taking his eyes off Jon.

She nodded, grinning a little. "Yeah, boss must have led them in circles...Adhipan thinks we can probably go home. Wait for them at the hotel. Unless you want to head uptown? They probably would look for a safe exit that way, right?"

Wreg nodded, his dark eyes thoughtful.

"We'll stay out here a while longer," he said.

Jon didn't speak, but he found himself glancing at the seer in spite of himself, relieved. He didn't like the idea of just cooling it at the hotel, waiting for them to return. At the thought, Wreg looked at him again, grunting in amusement.

"We'll stay out until dawn anyway," he amended, glancing back at Neela as he added cheerfully, "...Make sure Nenz and his bride don't get lost. In the meantime, sister Neela, you can help me find brother Jon here some new cock to play with...apparently he's grown bored of the extra he has at home..."

Neela let out a surprised snort, laughing. She looked at Jon in the pause, a knowing gleam in her eyes, even as Jon felt his jaw harden more under her delighted smile.

He didn't bother to answer though.

He knew Wreg well enough by then to know it would only make things worse.

4

SEWERS